Suggestum areæ superioris: the older reading was aræ: some of the mss. again read arcæ which is no doubt midway between the two. A learned dissertation on this passage by Ciampini quoted by Quesnel (Migne’s Patrol. i. pp. 529–534), established the true reading: he says also that this was the staircase up which the faithful climbed on bended knee in approaching the Vatican basilica. S. Leo has alluded to this curious practice already in Serm. XXII. chap. 6, supra. It is perhaps hardly necessary to add that this superstition has little, if any, connexion with the Christian habit of turning to the East, which is probably rather to the Altar as the centre of worship; for at all events in Western Christendom churches do not by any means universally ‘orientate’ (i.e. lie due east and west).